In this tutorial we will learn how brushless motor and ESC work.

This article is the first part of the

following video, where we will learn the working principle of a brushless DC motor and ESC (Electronic
Speed Controller), and in the second part we will learn how to control BLDC motor using Arduino.

How It Works

A BLDC motor consist of two main parts, a stator and a rotor. For this illustration the rotor is a
permanent magnet with two poles, while the stator consists of coils arranged as shown in the picture
below.

Brushless motor main parts - a stator and a rotor

We all know that if we apply current through a coil it will generate a magnetic field and the magnetic
field lines or the poles depends on the current direction.

Magnetic field generated by current running through a coil

So if we apply the appropriate current, the coil will generate a magnetic field that will attract the rotors
permanent magnet. Now if we activate each coil one after another the rotor will keep rotating because
of the force interaction between permanent and the electromagnet.

Force interaction between permanent and electromagnet in BLDC Motor

In order to increase the efficiency of the motor we can wind two opposite coils as a single coil in way
that will generate opposite poles to the rotors poles, thus we will get double attraction force.
Brushless motor coils electromagnets force interaction

With this configuration we can generate the six poles on the stator with just three coils or phase. We can
further increase the efficiency by energizing two coils at the same time. In that way one coil will attract
and the other coil will repel the rotor.

BLDC motor working principle

In order the rotor to make a full 360 degrees cycle, it need six steps or intervals.

BLDC Motor current waveform

If we take a look at the current waveform we can notice that in each interval there is one phase with
positive current, one phase with negative current and the third phase is turned off. This gives the idea
that we can connect the free end points of each of the three phases together and so we can share the
current between them or use a single current to energize the two phases at the same time.

Here’s an example. If we pull up phase A High, or connect it to the positive DC voltage, with some kind of
switch, for example a MOSFET, and on the other side, connect the phase B to ground, then the current
will flow from VCC, through phase A, the neutral point and phase B, to ground. So, with just a single
current flow we generated the four different poles which cause the rotor to move.

Generating 4 magnetic poles with just a single current flow - Brushless motor working principle

With this configuration we actually have a star connection of the motor phases, where the neutral point
is internally connected and the other three ends of the phases come out of the motor and that’s why
brushless motor have three wires coming out of it.

Brushless motor star connection

So, in order the rotor to make full cycle we just need to activate the correct two MOSFETS in each of the
6 interval and that’s what ESCs are actually all about.

How a Stepper Motor Works

In this tutorial article you will learn how a stepper motor works. We will cover the basic working
principles of stepper motors, their driving modes and…

How does an ESC Work (Electronic Speed Controller)

An ESC or an Electronic Speed Controller controls the brushless motor movement or speed by activating
the appropriate MOSFETs to create the rotating magnetic field so that the motor rotates. The higher the
frequency or the quicker the ESC goes through the 6 intervals, the higher the speed of the motor will be.

How does an ESC Work - Electronic Speed Controller

However, here comes an important question, and that’s how do we know when to activate which phase.
The answer is that we need to know the position of the rotor and there are two common methods used
for determining the rotor position.

The first common method is by using Hall-effect sensors embedded in the stator, arranged equally 120 or
60 degrees from each other.

Brushless motor rotor position using Hall-effect sensors

As the rotors permanent magnets rotate the Hall-effect sensors sense the magnetic field and generate a
logic “high” for one magnetic pole or logic “low” for the opposite pole. According to this information the
ESC knows when to activate the next commutation sequence or interval.

The second common method used for determining the rotor position is through sensing the back
electromotive force or back EMF. The back EMF occurs as a result of the exact opposite process of
generating a magnetic field or when a moving or changing magnetic field pass through a coil it induces a
current in the coil.

Back EMF in Brushless motor

So, when the moving magnetic field of the rotor pass through the free coil, or the one that’s not active, it
will induce a current flow in coil and as result a voltage drop will occur in that coil. The ESC captures
these voltage drops as they occur and based on them it predicts or calculates when the next interval
should take place.

So that’s the basic working principle of brushless DC motors and ESCs and it’s the same even if we
increase the number of poles of the both the rotor and the stator. We will still have a three-phase motor,
only the number of intervals will increase in order to complete a full cycle.

Here we can also mention that BLDC motors can be inrunners or outrunners. An inrunner brushless
motor has the permanent magnets inside the electromagnets, and vice versa, an outrunner motor has
the permanent magnets outside the electromagnets. Again, they use the same working principle and
each of them has its own strengths or weaknesses.

Inrunner vs outrunner brushless motor

Ok, that’s enough theory so now let’s demonstrate and see in real life what we explained above. For that
purpose we will we connect the three phases of a brushless motor to an oscilloscope. I connected 3
resistors in a single point to make a virtual neutral point and on the other side I connected them to the
three phases of the BLDC motor.

Working Principle

Stepper motor is a brushless DC motor that rotates in steps. This is very useful because it can be
precisely positioned without any feedback sensor, which represents an open-loop controller. The stepper
motor consists of a rotor that is generally a permanent magnet and it is surrounded by the windings of
the stator. As we activate the windings step by step in a particular order and let a current flow through
them they will magnetize the stator and make electromagnetic poles respectively that will cause
propulsion to the motor. So that’ the basic working principle of the stepper motors.

Working-Principle of Stepper Motor

Driving Modes

There are several different ways of driving the stepper motor. The first one is the Wave Drive or Single-
Coil Excitation. In this mode we active just one coil at a time which means that for this example of motor
with 4 coils, the rotor will make full cycle in 4 steps.

Wave-Drive Mode

Next is the Full step drive mode which provides much higher torque output because we always have 2
active coils at a given time. However this doesn’t improve the resolution of the stepper and again the
rotor will make a full cycle in 4 steps.

Full-Step-Drive-Mode

For increasing the resolution of the stepper we use the Half Step Drive mode. This mode is actually a
combination of the previous two modes.
Here we have one active coil followed by 2 active coils and then again one active coil followed by 2 active
coils and so on. So with this mode we get double the resolution with the same construction. Now the
rotor will make full cycle in 8 steps.

Half-Step-Drive-ModeHowever the most common method of controlling stepper motors nowadays is the
Microstepping. In this mode we provide variable controlled current to the coils in form of sin wave. This
will provide smooth motion of the rotor, decrease the stress of the parts and increase the accuracy of
the stepper motor.

Microstepping

Another way of increasing the resolution of the stepper motor is by increasing the numbers of the poles
of the rotor and the numbers of the pole of the stator.

Incresing-Poles-Numbers0

Stepper Motor Types by Construction

By construction there are 3 different types of stepper motors: permanent magnet stepper, variable
reluctance stepper and hybrid synchronous stepper motor.

By-Construction

The Permanent Magnet stepper has a permanent magnet rotor which is driven by the stators windings.
They create opposite polarity poles compared to the poles of the rotor which propels the rotor.
Stepper-Motor_PM

The next type, the Variable Reluctant stepper motor uses a non-magnetizes soft iron rotor. The rotor has
teeth that are offset from the stator and as we active the windings in a particular order the rotor moves
respectively so that it has minimum gab between the stator and the teeth of the rotor

Stepper-Motor-Variable-Reluctant01

The Hybrid Synchronous motor is combinations of the previous two steppers. It has permanent magnet
toothed rotor and also a toothed stator. The rotor has two sections, which are opposite in polarity and
their teeth are offset as shown here.

Top-View-Rotor01

This is a front view of a commonly used hybrid stepper motor which has 8 poles on the stator that are
activated by 2 windings, A and B. So if we activate the winding A, we will magnetize 4 poles of which two
of them will have South polarity and two of them North polarity.

Hybrid-Stepper-Motor02

We can see that in such a way the rotors teeth are aligned with the teeth of poles A and unaligned with
the teeth of the poles B. That means that in the next step when we turn off the A poles and activate the
B poles, the rotor will move counter clock wise and its teeth will align with the teeth of the B poles.

Hybrid-Stepper-Motor_Working-P

If we keep activating the poles in a particular order the rotor will move continuously. Here we can also
use different driving modes like the wave drive, full step drive, half step drive and microstepping for even
further increasing the resolution of the stepper motor.